Michel Ruhlman at the Art Institute of Seattle

Michael Ruhlman visited the Art Institute this week to answer the culinary student’s questions and sign copies of his new book, The Elements of Cooking. Michael charmed the students with his direct personality, his culinary experience and his sincerely straightforward manner of sharing his food adventures. He made a strong point about salt being the most powerful ingredient in the kitchen. This he discovered from a conversation with Thomas Keller. He explained that one must know how to salt and when to salt. Never did I realize that such an important part of cooking is also the area in which I am the weakest. I am definitely lacking salting capabilities at this point. He kept sharing personal experiences with a passion that could only inspire one to get off their behind and write, write, write or cook, cook, cook.
After such a whiff of inspiration, what does one do first? He also answered personal questions about career choices individually asked by the students in line. He answered with sincerity and made sure to stress that if you want to be a food writer then you have to write everyday. I ran home to decide whether I should write or cook. I decided to read his book which inspired me to write and cook. Each page is filled with so much information that a bubble tea straw wouldn’t be big enough to slurp it up.